Books in conversation.
Books that stayed with Morgan
Morgan recalls encountering Julia Cameron’s work in his twenties and continuing to practise Morning Pages today.
A book can become a practice that stays in a working life. This personal connection gives the comparison a place to begin.
Personal recollection supplied by Morgan. Explore Julia Cameron’s work.
Books can share an inquiry while giving readers different ways into it. These comparisons describe neighbouring territory and the particular focus of The Corporate Artist.
They are editorial comparisons, not endorsements from the other authors or claims that their work directly influenced this book.
The Creative Act: A Way of Being — Rick Rubin
The publisher presents The Creative Act as an exploration of creativity and the artist’s way of being. The Corporate Artist shares an interest in recognising creativity beyond a narrow professional label.
Morgan’s book locates its inquiry within organisational life: meetings, decisions, relationships, and the craft of everyday work. Its vocabulary includes the Known Character and the creative medium of a role.
A useful distinction: A reader interested in creativity as a way of being can explore what that inquiry looks like inside their working day through The Corporate Artist.
Publisher description of The Creative Act
The Art of Possibility — Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander
The publisher describes The Art of Possibility through practices that bring creativity and possibility into life and work. The Corporate Artist can sit beside it as another invitation to reconsider familiar assumptions.
Morgan’s book concentrates on people creating inside organisations, with stories and inquiries about professional characters, craft, energy, and co-creation.
A useful distinction: The Corporate Artist gives the inquiry a specific setting and vocabulary grounded in ordinary corporate work.
Publisher description of The Art of Possibility
What makes The Corporate Artist distinct?
Its organising proposition is that people are already being paid to create within their existing roles. It connects that proposition to the characters they play, the mediums they shape, and the people with whom their work develops.
The useful comparison is about fit: which questions a reader wants to explore and which setting makes those questions tangible.
What the book is not
It does not require leaving your job to become creative.
It does not claim that everything people create is good.
It does not ask readers to accept unhealthy workplaces or assume that an individual can repair every organisational condition.
The Known Character is not presented here as a personality diagnosis or a permanent label.
The book is not presented as a validated intervention with guaranteed performance or wellbeing outcomes.
It offers stories, practices, and inquiries that readers can examine in the circumstances of their own working lives.